Lesson Name: Two-Voice Poem and Comparing Perspectives
Grade: 6th grade
Time Needed: 2 hours
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to identify the feelings and experiences that Native Americans went through on Route 66.
Students will collaboratively create a two-voice poem that displays the experiences and feelings of black, white, and Native American people on Route 66.
Standards
C3 Framework and Arizona State Standards
Disciplinary skills
SP1: Chronological reasoning requires understanding processes of change and continuity over time, which means assessing similarities and differences between historical periods and between the past and present.
SP2: Thinking within the discipline involves the ability to identify, compare, and evaluate multiple perspectives about a given event to draw conclusions about that event since there are multiple points of view about events and issues.
SP3: Historians and Social Scientist gather, interpret, and use evidence to develop claims and answer historical, economic, geographical, and political questions and communicate their conclusions.
SP4: Thinking within the discipline involves the ability to analyze relationships among causes and effects and to create and support arguments using relevant evidence.
Arizona Social Studies standards
Citizens have individual rights, roles, and responsibilities
6.C2.1 Analyze the beliefs, experiences, perspectives, and values that underlie points of view regarding civic issues in the time period and regions studied.
Patterns of social and political interactions have shaped people, places, and events throughout history and continue to shape the modern world.
6.H4.1 Describe how different group identities such as racial, ethnic, class, gender, regional, and immigrant/migration status emerged and contributed to societal and regional development, characteristics, and interactions over time. (Example of the Green book)
Arizona ELA standards
6.RL.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
6.RL.6 Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
6.RI.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings.
6.SL.2 Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, and orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study
6.SL.4 Present claims and findings, sequencing ideas logically and using pertinent descriptions, facts, and details to accentuate main ideas or themes; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation. 6.SL.5 Include multimedia components
Materials
Index Cards
Butcher Paper x2
Powerpoint with pictures and descriptions
Ruth and Molly Books
Paper (lined and printer paper)
Markers
Analyzing Photos Worksheet
Introduction Activity
In order to warm our students up to get the community feeling alive again, we will play Two Truths & One Lie. This game is one that our students genuinely enjoy which is why we chose to start with it in order to get the group feeling connected again.
Next, we will do an activity that will introduce the topic of Native Americans. Each student will be given a piece of paper. Individually, they will write down two or three questions that they have about Native Americans. We will let them know that this can relate to Route 66 as well, but that it should be questions that explain their curiosity about Native Americans. We will then have each student share their questions with the group.
Activity
In order to teach the students about the Native American perspective of Route 66, we will show them a powerpoint presentation. On this powerpoint presentation, there will be three slides that each show a stereotypical picture of Native Americans. The students will fill out a worksheet to go with each slide’s picture. The worksheet is one that has them analyze the picture further. Once they complete this worksheet, there will be a description that pops up on the slide that gives historical information about the photo.
The last photo on our slideshow shows a stereotypical advertisement that relates to Native Americans on Route 66. We will use this slide to relate back to the stories about Molly and Ruth traveling on Route 66 that were in our previous lesson.
Assessment
Their assessment will be to create a two-voice poem. We will begin by giving each student index cards. Their job will be to write down experiences, feelings, and facts. Each of these topics will pertain to white, black, and Native American people’s experience on Route 66. They should write about 3 of each.
We will then come together as a group to see what each student came up with individually. We will organize their index cards on a graphic organizer that will be written on butcher paper. We will organize them by white, black, and Native American experience. Then by experiences, feelings, and facts.
Afterwards, we will write down possible sentence frame structures on the whiteboard. These can help students create ideas for when we go into the actual writing of our poem as a group.
To start the writing of the poem, we will have a piece of butcher paper on the board. We will ask the students if they want to write a two-voice or three-voice poem. We will then explain to them that each voice takes a turn in the poem line by line. Then they can take turns to collaboratively create this poem.
Once our rough draft is complete, we will have the students read the poem line by line to us. One of the teachers will type this poem into a document with different fonts for each voice. While the students read it aloud to us, we will go through the editing process as well.
Extra Time?
If we have extra time at the end of our lesson, we will give students time to draw an illustration for the poem. They will be given time to get creative and represent the perspectives of each group of people through an illustration.
Sentence Frame Options
We feel…
We experienced…
We don’t understand…
We have seen…
We are…
We want…
We want to know why...
When this happened...
Why did...
Link for PowerPoint
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1D7FAMIzNt_rKBoXh3n6vhQ5nFAOdz2yys5qrc8oLBoQ/edit?usp=sharing
Link for Worksheet
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1egqB7vSWp43e8T6yErPvdCwrHXs6WRTSG8kOEpV2TME/edit?usp=sharing